Mini Convertible review

Affordable cabrios used to be a vast market. The Mini and MX-5 are mainstays of the art, but in the last decade or two they’ve fought over customers with Alfa, Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault and countless others. Whether we miss a cornucopia of awkward-looking folding hard-tops is another argument; diversity is good in all walks of life, and this area of the car market sorely lacks it at the moment.

So praise be that the Mini, despite its big, BMW engine and lavish circular screen, tucks neatly under thirty grand. Your entry point is the £28,715 Cooper C Convertible, which blends 161bhp power and 43.5mpg efficiency with a healthy amount of standard kit and cute little 16in alloys.

To this you can add one of two neatly named options packs. Level 1 costs £2,000 and brings adaptive LED lights, folding mirrors, heated front seats (an essential to fully utilise a cabrio in British weather), a head-up display and some neater smartphone storage. Level 2 whips all of the above together with a posh Harman/Kardon stereo for £2,700. The Union Jack soft-top is a further £700 we'd personally avoid.

The Cooper S Convertible costs £31,715 - a lovely, round three grand rise - and introduces another 40bhp and 17in wheels with little dent to the fuel economy, not to mention all the Level 1 extras (making Level 2 a mere £700 jump). Good value, then, though you’ll need to spend over £35k if you want paddleshifters. That’s because both C and S Coopers offer Classic, Exclusive and Sport aesthetics packs, each adding a few grand to the base RRP. Playing on the configurator ought to make slightly more sense of it all...

Ironing out the confusion (by bringing all of the really good stuff together) is the range-topping John Cooper Works Convertible; while it trumps even fully specced MX-5s with its £37,535 tag, it doesn’t represent a big leap over a lavishly trimmed Cooper S Convertible while offering a chunkier 228bhp peak and even more mischief in its driving experience.